Australian Banking & Finance articles from December 2003

Australian Banking & Finance archives from December 2003

Banks in recruitment mode.
December 22, 2003... THE PURGING OF STAFF BY investment banks appears to be over with the three top stock underwriters in Australia, UBS AG, Macquarie Bank and Goldman Sachs JB Were, now hiring bankers to meet increased demand from companies selling shares and...

Wilkins beats the odds with successful Promina listing: what next for Promina, the major new listing in the Australian insurance and financial services market? PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO Tony Harrington spoke to Promina CEO Mike Wilkins for PWC's Briefings magazine.
December 22, 2003... ONE OF THE BIGGEST IPOS IN THE world for 2003; a scintillating inaugural first half profit performance; an earnings forecast upgrade--it all makes for a hard act to follow. "First we need to just get everything settled down." Wilkins said....

Westpac to expand QLD contact center.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... WESTPAC'S NEW BRISBANE contact centre has already created 70 new jobs since it took its first tall in September this year and the bank expects to increase its workforce by a further 180 staff, to around 500, in the next three years. ...

Community banking a profitable venture.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... COMMUNITY BANKING IS PAYING handsome rewards in the town of Nanango, where directors of the local company which established a branch with Heritage Building Society, have announced 12% interest is being paid to locals who contributed start-up...

Mortgage Choice has record earnings.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... MORTGAGE CHOICE AUSTRALIA has reported record earnings for fiscal year 2003. Audited pre tax profit rose 78% to $9.16 million in the year ending June 30 en record consolidated revenues of $76 million. This compared with pre-tax profit...

On the record.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... "AMP may be bloodied but it's definitely not bowed. It's coming back with a vengeance." CEO ANDREW MOHL. "It has given it a good shake at a time when the industry was getting complacent." CITIBANK HEAD OF PAYMENT PRODUCTS JULIAN...

Efforts to fast track loan settlements.(Current Account)(Lending Industry XML Initiative)
December 22, 2003... HIGH DEMAND AND CONTINUED capital gain in the residential property market has forced the finance industry to extend e-commerce standards to bring settlement agents online to fast track settlements, according to LIXI, the Lending Industry XML...

Reader competition.(Current Account)(Omego Performance Corp)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... Gaile Moir, sales and marketing manager of Omego Performance Corp, is the winner of the Australian Banking & Finance/Nokia phone giveaway competition. She correctly named St George CEO Gail Kelly as the winner of Australian Banking &...

Lenders expect more rate rises.(News)
December 22, 2003... DESPITE THE RECENT RATE RISE and gradual increases in the RBA official rate expected during the next 12 months, the flow on to fixed mortgage rates for home buyers for the period is expected to be less than 1%, according to a survey of lenders...

Card issuers ignore the net.(News)
December 22, 2003... MOST CREDIT CARD ISSUERS are missing a key opportunity to acquire new customers, according to new Australian research. Despite slashing interest rates and offering special introductory deals, financial institutions are simply net harnessing...

ABN buys 50% of Absolute.(News)
December 22, 2003... ABN AMRO HAS AGREED TO acquire a 50% interest in the Absolute Capital Group, a Sydney-based alternative investment house. Absolute Capital specialises in the packaging of high yield debt and equity instruments for institutional and retail...

2004 features list.(News)(Illustration)(Calendar)
December 22, 2003... 2004 FEATURES LIST Issue Cover Date Booking Deadline Material Deadline 1 30 January^ 19 January 20 January 2 13 February 3 February 4 February 3 27 February 17 February ...

CSFB lashes out at 'money culture' in banking sector.(News)(Credit Suisse First Boston)
December 22, 2003... THE FINANCIAL SERVICES sector has always sharpened its competitive claws by rewarding tough employees who are more likely to be lone wolves than team players. But according to John Mack, the head of Credit Suisse First Boston, a firm's...

Making e-finance a safe way to do business.(News)
December 22, 2003... DESPITE THE SIGNIFICANT OPPORTUNITIES that online banking has presented financial institutions, uptake has not met expectation. Banks have found the main cause to be low customer confidence in the security of electronic transactions. While...

ATM thieves hit Citibank, J.P. Morgan.(News)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... THREE MEN WERE CHARGED IN A plot to install an automatic teller machine to copy account information and use the purloined data to withdraw $225,000 from Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co ATMs, prosecutors said. Robert Miraglia, 39, was...

Investment managers benefit from automation.(News)
December 22, 2003... AUSTRALIA LEADS THE ASIA Pacific in straight through processing (STP), according to research by global trade services company Omgeo. According to the research, Australia, with a high domestic trade market of 91%, has invested in back office...

Protection against theft.(News)
December 22, 2003... CREDIT CARD FRAUD COSTS billions of dollars every year, with online, phone or mail order transactions accounting for a significant percentage. With over 10 million credit and charge cards in the market, this figure is sure to rise. ...

Managing relationships.(News)(online mortgage works very well)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... REAL-TIME, WEB-BASED TECHNOLOGY has become indispensable for lenders to efficiently manage mortgage broker relationships in 2004, according to a recent study. The study by TowerGroup and Frank Eve Consulting also found that about half of...

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Westpac Banking Corporation (NYSE: WBK) to the closing bell, on November 10, 2003.(News)
December 22, 2003... The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Westpac Banking Corporation (NYSE: WBK) to the closing bell, on November 10, 2003. From left: Robert Britz, president & COO, NYSE; David Morgan, CEO; Iain Stewart, country manager; Manuela Adl, senior vice...

Suncorp wins rating.(News)
December 22, 2003... SUNCORP'S BID T0 AGGRESSIVELY grow its wealth management business and lift sales through independent adviser channels has been given a boost with managed funds researcher ASSIRT awarding prestigious four-star ratings to the group's flagship...

Card conference.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... THE AUSTRALIAN CREDIT CARD industry is a fountain of activity--new entrants, new rules for issuers and new positions for merchants and consumers. The multi-billion dollar industry has been completely transformed in the past year, creating...

Behavioural shift helps Aon breed better brokers.(News)
December 22, 2003... FOLLOWING EVENTS LIKE September 11 and the collapse of HIH, insurance premiums soared and the industry was faced with one of the toughest times ever to do business. Insurance brokers who place around hall of Australia's total insurance...

Young drivers at risk.(Australian Insurer)
December 22, 2003... LEADING INSURER AAMI HAS revealed one in five drivers under the age of 25 has driven after taking recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, speed or ecstasy. The worrying trend was revealed in the 2003 AAMI Young Drivers Index, which...

OAMPS acquires Brisbane general insurance business.(Australian Insurer)(yourinsurancegroup)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... OAMPS GROUP HAS CONTINUED its 2003 buying spree, acquiring the business of Brisbane-based yourinsurancegroup, which markets and packages general insurance products designed for specific small retail, style businesses. The business will...

Victorian storm costs could top $100 million.(Australian Insurer)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... DAMAGE CAUSED TO INSURED property by rainstorms in Victoria earlier this month will run to around $100 million, according to the Insurance Disaster Response Organisation (IDRO). IDRO Victorian Coordinator Peter Jamvold said strong winds,...

AMP demerger gets the nod.(Australian Insurer)
December 22, 2003... AMP SHAREHOLDERS HAVE voted to spin off the group's UK businesses, which have cost Australia's largest life insurer more than $6 billion in writedowns and triggered record losses. The move gives AMP's 960,000 shareholders one share, for...

Murray covers key issues at AB&F lecture.(People)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... The managing director and chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank David Murray was the guest speaker at an Australian Banking & Finance lecture sponsored by Oracle in Sydney on December 4.

Selft service ATM software.(News)(Automated Teller Machine)
December 22, 2003... BY THE LATE 1990S VIRTUALLY art of financial institutions in North American, Europe and parts of Asia Pacific were running their ATM networks on IBM's OS/2 operating system. Within this environment the ATM vendor's platform sat en top of...